Pull Together Now
by Zagzagel
Summary: Do dead angels dream? Gabriel isn't sure of that or much else other than dead angels shouldn't be where he is now.


**A/N: Nebulous Season 11 time frame.**

 **XX**

* * *

Lucifer was always stunning. Bright and blinding, the way he wormed into you and threatened to burn you from the inside to the outermost layers from his brilliance. That imploration to be seen and loved and just adored beyond all else as honey promises that may or may not be kept spun like fine webs of desire. All of them turned to dust by the need to just be near that lure of heat and beauty.

Michael though, Michael was different. Had always been different. He was quiet, soft steps slipping by in the background and you didn't even realize what you were missing. Unless of course you went looking for him, Gabriel mused. That smothering heat wasn't set to burn to ash. Rather it was a slow smolder of a concealed ember, until it grew larger into the radiance of a thousand suns swimming in absolute devotion.

That had been why he left all that time ago. Watching as Michael had hammered himself into a coldness that shouldn't be to try and survive. What they all carved themselves into just to get to the next moment, to breathe as everything shattered and died.

What he hadn't expected in his long life that had seen the formation of all, was to be with his brother now in some void. Something so nameless and empty and was this where dead angels go? Was Michael dead?

It was horrific and Gabriel immediately checked that thought right back out the door.

"I am in The Cage, Little One."

There was something with the way his brother spoke, something off and almost childlike as if Michael had ever been a child. Young sure, a long time ago but Gabriel knew his brother had burst into creation, splintering the void with his fire and glory fully formed. Even if he hadn't been around to see it just yet.

Not to mention why Father would let Michael rot away in hell and he knew there was something wrong, something that shouldn't be even if it was happening and he felt that grace so long denied weaving around him.

"You are dead, Little One."

The memories surged forward. Lucifer with his spoiled rampage, his quest for blood and vengeance and apparently the two little humans who had been looked down on had done it. Trapped Michael here too and he wondered if his brother was insane.

"He leaves me alone now," Michael confided in hushed tones, his thunderous voice almost meek as Gabriel choked. Like Lucifer had broken a toy and had moved on to something else. "Please Gabriel, please just touch me."

So broken and he did as he was asked, trying to make that grace that had once been the foundation of heaven brighter through its dull sheen it now carried. Michael moved into it, nesting and Gabriel realized he still had the boy's soul with him. Somehow whole and barely scratched, sleeping in the grace of a dying archangel.

"I love him," Michael whispered as Gabriel tugged them closer. "Not like I do you but I do love him. I could hear Sam screaming and I couldn't let that happen, since there is no one to come for either of us. Not like Sam."

How was he even here? Gabriel tried to figure out where he had been between being murdered and waking up to, well just this, but it was a blankness that laughed off his efforts. His brother was in his arms, both of them resembling their vessels and he curled closer as the only thing he really was sure of was that this wasn't all of Michael.

Most of him seemed to still be in The Cage.

"I forgive you, you know. For leaving me. Everyone always left me but you were the hardest. At least Lucifer had the kindness to make it easier with him. You were just gone and it felt like dying. I wish I had."

Everything he still had, everything he was he poured into Michael, wanting to say he wouldn't leave again but he had no idea how he was even here like this. Let alone how long it would last.

To his credit Michael clung to him, lost in his madness but there was a hum, something soft and low and sweet as he folded himself around his older brother. All he really had to give was to stitch the fragments of Mike up a little more before he was torn away back to whichever Oz he had been in before.

"She's free, Gabriel. I don't know how but the lock is broken and she's free."

Amara. He managed to repress a shudder as he didn't want his brother to think it was his grace that caused it. That maybe did explain a few things like Michael being able to reach out through the prison though the million dollar question of his spontaneous rebirth through suspiciously non-virgin means remained front and center.

"When he was done with me all I could think about was you," his brother was saying, just that terrible truth was coarse and cruel and he wanted to scream. To rip that bright grace from the Morning Star and watch him sputter and bleed across all the atrocities at his hands.

Michael fell back into humming against him, taunt and trembling as Gabriel whispered the promises of old to him.

 **XX**

* * *

Michael had been blissfully silent for a long time. How long Gabriel couldn't really say as he had zero sense of time and he doubted time existed here anyways. Not that it mattered, it wasn't like they were late to a meeting and he let out a small laugh at that stupidity. Michael stirred in his arms briefly then stilled, seemingly happy. Mad as a hatter on an absinthe binge but happy.

Against what he thought would happen he seemed to be growing stronger. Instead of slipping away piece by piece he felt more whole even if they were trapped. If this was what he could do for Michael he didn't regret being here. Perhaps in a few thousand years he'd be just as vacant but for now, it was better then being an unaware cosmic smear.

Michael had told him that he hated the silence of hell, of their prison so Gabriel sang to him. Sang the ancient songs, the ones of heaven before so much had been created. He missed those times when things had been simple and all they were to do was love and obey. There was no question until Lucifer's corruption but in the end his brother had chosen and Michael, well Mikey wasn't it.

Though, he wasn't above throwing out a little modern beat here and there. Had to stave off the feeling of the ravenous void slipping around them somehow.

"He's free."

Gabriel quieted at those words, trying not to think of how Lucifer managed to work his way out. What damage he could be doing as it was obvious he wasn't going a for a cruise and pictures with Tiger. was numbing. Especially with Amara already out, about and probably very pissed off.

Not there was anything he could do about that though. All he had was a whole lot of nothing. So he went back to singing and Michael made a soft sound.

 **XX**

* * *

It had been one thing waking up in a void with his unbalanced brother. That somehow he could deal with. Especially after being stabbed and dying in some grungy motel because another brother who was supposed to love him couldn't handle being second best.

All of that, Gabriel decided, was alright. He could deal.

Waking up on earth with a real body in the rain with his rather wobbly Jenga tower brother beside him was a step too far. It felt like he was about to tip over his own sanity meter so that it sat squarely in the 'never coming back from batshit insane' column.

Michael was sitting in front of him, stark naked and staring with a profound innocence that hadn't existed since the garden. Deep scars cut with a delicate, meticulous cruelty rippled across his form. He was duller until Gabriel reached out and raised his chin up, whipping that dullness into a cosmic storm that called still in the language of newly formed stars. It was hypnotizing and it took everything to not fall into that call that rattled even the far corners of heaven as his brother reached for him.

Cautiously Gabriel checked himself over to see if he was all there. Yep, everything accounted for, healing but a wound to the gut would do that to a guy. That human soul Michael had cared for was gone, more than likely finally making it's way to heaven for the promises that were a completely different existence ago. Their once home was quiet and Gabriel pushed aside the realization that it had been decimated, the low ache of loss ever present.

"We're free," he said, stating the obvious like he always had a tendency to do, surprised at how hoarse his voice was. Michael tilted his head, curious. "I'll take care of you Mike, okay? Let's get somewhere that's not in a field in the rain.

There was a nod and Gabriel pushed his grace out, looking to see if one of his old haunts was still around. It was one of the most protected and while he didn't feel Amara they still more then likely had Lucifer to deal with. Michael was in no shape to fight if it came to it and Gabriel would be damned if Lucifer was going to drag something this beautiful off to break it all over again.

With Mike, always the furnace, against him, he flew them to the cabin away from everything that had eyes and a mouth that could alert anything. Dust had somehow settled over everything, even on surfaces that weren't exposed and it felt good to have it gone with a wave of his hand. His brother was pushed up against him, unwilling to be separate and all Gabriel wanted was to physically feel, to touch and maybe in a few centuries it would be clear that they had actually landed in reality.

Without a real thought of what he was doing other than the desire to not be wet he led them to the bedroom, dragging Michael under the down and silk that he conjured to get warm as his brother was glued to him like he needed him to exist. Maybe he did. Something was still so unsettled deep in him, like Dad was really gone now. Not dead, just gone and this was the last thing they got.

A fleeting thought made him wonder if the Winchesters were responsible for some if not all of this. It hadn't been that long after all here, they could still be alive. Though as a consolation prize he'd take it as his brother hummed against him.

"You came."

"Yeah. I mean I'd be spittin in the wind to tell you how but I'm here, I'm still here Mike."

"I couldn't help but call to you. When The Cage was damaged you where there," Michael whispered, his mouth a hot press against his neck and he couldn't move. Couldn't fucking move. "I kept you in my grace so nothing could hurt you."

Oh Father. He's holding on too tight, he knows his finger nails are drawing blood as they try to find purchase, a nearness that will never be enough after this. "I shouldn't have left you. I can't change that but I'm here now and we're safe and together and it's gonna be okay Mikey, I promise."

His brother, the most beautiful of them all had remade him in the depth of hell and he wanted to open all his mouths and scream to Father how he could abandon something like this.

Instead he listened to Michael breath in that borrowed flesh, the beat of the heart he didn't need as he whispered of all the things his brother had yet to experience and what he wanted to show him. Michael was still Michael, would always be Michael. It was still smothering to be near him and everything unworthy in Gabriel felt like it was burning away to smoke and that he was finally pure again. As if they were home under the light of heaven's sun and he was whole in the fire that was and would always be the first of them all.

It was what his brother did after all.


End file.
